Leiko Ikemura (b.1951 in Tsu/Mie, Japan) studied sculpture and painting in Spain, and in 1979 settled in Zürich, before finally moving to Cologne in 1985. After beginning with lively, dreamlike drawings and paintings she turned in 1987 to sculpture as her central medium. Since then she has made figures - mostly female - who fluctuate between two conditions, on the one hand they seem unfinished, on the other still in a state of becoming. Their undecided condition thematizes her fear of losing her cultural identity, and also a deep understanding of human nature - her figures are also commuters across the border, mediators between Japanese and Western culture.